A single blog post is hardly going to be sufficient to tell the rich history and the many tangible heritage sides of Georgetown, and I would not even dare to try to write a succinct summary in fear of getting it wrong or short-changed it in any way.

Instead, I’ll let the photos take you through a simplied journey, of appreciating the kind of childhood that is familiar to my generation (and those that came before, for we played barefoot outside and wouldn’t think of sliding an icon on a touchscreen gadget), on looking at freeze frames harking back to the colonial time, or seeing how much we stand to lose if we do not preserve part of our roots.

I particularly like the recent addition of street arts – many of them by Ernest Zacharevic – to the neighbourhood, depicting a simpler life without modern trappings, and with snippets of facts to be learned of the streets we stood in. The Penang Municipal Council and Tourism Board had actually produced a free map that charts out where the different works can be found, but when we were visiting, we just walked the streets in a random fashion.

One thing that I miss out on our short trip to Penang was the introduction of the Penang Peranakan Mansion to F. It could have been lovely to show him what growing up was like under the influence of my late greatgrandmother, who was a nyonya. She wore sarong daily all her life, made the best nyonya food, and there were many household items of this particular custom at home, which sadly had been replaced. Next trip, we must make it a priority.